Australian couple kidnapped by Al-Qaeda militants in Burkina Faso

A Perth family faces the harshest of bargains, awaiting a ransom note for their elderly parents, who have been kidnapped by Al Qaeda militants waging a bloody campaign in West Africa.

Transcript

icon-plusicon-minus

HAYDEN COOPER, PRESENTER: A family in Perth is facing a terrifying predicament tonight. Their elderly parents have been kidnapped by al-Qaeda militants waging a bloody campaign across North and West Africa. Dr Ken and Jocelyn Elliott are no naive travellers. They've been running a hospital for 40 years in the country of Burkina Faso. Now though, they are hostages, their whereabouts unknown. And while their captors are expected to demand a ransom payment, in the past, they've also been known to execute prisoners. Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop reports.

KEN ELLIOTT, SURGEON: When we first came, we came with nothing.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP, REPORTER: For more than 40 years, Dr Ken Elliott and his wife Jocelyn have devoted their lives to the world's poorest.

KEN ELLIOTT (YouTube video): We're doing what we think is mission work; that is to say we're first of all meeting a need physically, but our ultimate aim is to show the love of God and the goodness and power of God through medicine.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: The Elliotts' mission work has involved an extraordinary commitment. At age 81, Dr Ken Elliott is the only surgeon for a vast impoverished area of far-flung Burkina Faso.

BRUCE CONNOR, FRIEND: It was a question of serving the poorest of the poor. People that had no access to medical services. Ken wanted to provide those services, free of charge. He created a hospital there from nothing, and now there's probably 120, 140-bed hospital, which is amazing, absolutely amazing.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Long hidden from the spotlight, the ageing surgeon turned to YouTube recently to try to find someone to continue his and his wife's legacy.

KEN ELLIOTT (YouTube video): But when you look around and see the need, which is difficult to talk about, but it's - the need is enormous. And I think if you could look after it, the rewards are enormous.

BRUCE CONNOR: Ken's a highly skilled doctor. He does major surgery dealing with abdominal surgery, fractures, he's very experienced in obstetrics. So he tackles everything that comes. These people just wouldn't get any medical attention if it wasn't for Ken and Jocelyn. They are a team, the two of them. They work together.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: It was at this hospital, which the Elliotts built 40 years ago, that their story of selfless heroism turned to senseless cruelty.

ROCH MARC CHRISTIAN KABORE, PRESIDENT, BURKINA FASO (voiceover translation): In the night of 15th to 16th of January, Dr Kenneth Arthur Elliott and his wife Jocelyn, Australians, based in Djibo since 1972 and in charge of the Elliott Clinic, were kidnapped.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Ken and Jocelyn Elliott were snatched from the north of Burkina Faso by armed militants aligned with al-Qaeda. Australian and international authorities are now scrambling to find where they're being hidden, most likely across the border in Mali where the terror group al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has a firm foothold.

CLIVE WILLIAMS, SECURITY EXPERT: If they've been taken into Mali and they're being held by an extremist group, then clearly the motivation is kidnap for ransom. ... Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has allegedly raised $50 million over the last 10 years through kidnap for ransom. So, that's their primary aim.

NEWSREADER: To West Africa, and an end to the deadly terror attack on a popular tourist hotel.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Soon after the Elliotts were kidnapped, al-Qaeda militants hunted down more foreigners and aid workers in a fiery siege at a luxury hotel and restaurant further south in the capital, Ouagadougou. But this time, they showed brutal indifference to their victims' lives.

WITNESS (voiceover translation): They started shooting, Shooting and everybody lay down on the ground. As soon as you lifted your head, you would get shot straight away, so you had to pretend to be dead.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: At least 29 people were killed, among the dead, aid workers from Canada, Europe and the US. But Ken and Jocelyn Elliott may be too valuable to the terrorists to be killed.

CLIVE WILLIAMS: I think in the case of Dr Elliott, he's a surgeon, so he's in a situation where he can actually provide them with a service. So they would have an interest, I think, in looking after the two of them.

NIGEL BRENNAN, FORMER HOSTAGE (2008): My name is Nigel Brennan. I'm a photojournalist from Australia. We've been captured by the Mujahideen who are in opposition to the Ethiopian troops in Somalia. They have accused us of working with the Ethiopian forces.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Australian Nigel Brennan was held captive by Islamist militants for more than a year in Somalia.

NIGEL BRENNAN: There's terror I guess that runs through your body is - are they going to kidnap us or are they potentially going to kill us straight away? For Ken and Jocelyn, being a husband and wife, I think having each other there to look after one another is going to be really important. And will actually help with their - how mentally they get through a situation like this.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Nigel Brennan now use his hard-won expertise to consult on hostage crises. He says the Elliotts' children in Australia could be waiting a long time for any demands from their parents' captors.

NIGEL BRENNAN: AQIM may be wanting a ransom, they may be wanting a prison swap, they may just be holding them as a pawn piece for further down the track. ... Up until then, unfortunately for the family back home in Australia, it's a tough time because you have no idea what's happening to your - I guess your family members, the people that you really love and you want back.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Brennan was finally released when his family raised a ransom of more than $1 million. The Australian Government is opposed to paying ransoms so the Elliotts' family may need to do negotiations of their own.

CLIVE WILLIAMS: Well the Australian Government view is that if you pay a ransom, then you encourage other people to be kidnapped for ransom. So, I mean, it's a logical process, but it does mean that really the Australian Government needs to back out of it fairly quickly and let the negotiators come in that are international negotiators to do the negotiation for the family.

NIGEL BRENNAN: Statistically, they have an amazing chance of coming home alive. I think it's 95, 96 per cent of all hostages actually come out if there's a negotiation on the table.

SEAN RUBINSZTEIN-DUNLOP: Ken and Jocelyn Elliotts' children have told 7.30 they're too upset to speak publicly, but their friend Bruce Connor has a message for their captors.

BRUCE CONNOR: Their whole life has been devoted to the caring of the people in Burkina Faso for 42 years and they wish to continue doing that until they are no longer able to do that. And I'd ask them to show - show them mercy and to return them to their hospital.